Roseanne Barr claims, ‘I’m not a racist. I’m an idiot.’
Celebrity rabbi releases emotional podcast interview
An interview Roseanne Barr gave to a celebrity rabbi in the days after her infamous twitter rant was released Sunday, showing a weeping Barr pleading for forgiveness and saying, “I’m not a racist. I’m an idiot.”
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach released the emotional podcast interview, Barr’s first since ABC canceled the show “Roseanne.” Boteach, a longtime spiritual adviser for Barr, asked her why she would write something that was in such “complete contravention” of her Jewish values.
“I’m a lot of things, a loud mouth and all that stuff,” Barr said, sobbing. “But I’m not stupid for God’s sake. I never would have wittingly called any black person ... a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And people think that I did that and it just kills me.”
Barr reiterated her explanation that she was medicated with the sleep drug Ambien when she posted the tweet comparing Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, to an ape.
Barr told Boteach that she did not know Jarrett was black, an assertion she has also made publicly.
“When ABC called me and said, ‘What is the reason for your egregious racism,’ I said, ‘Oh my God, it is a form of racism,’ ” Barr said. “I guess I didn’t know she was black, and I’ll cop to it, but I thought she was white.”
“But you still regret and don’t excuse what you wrote,” asked Boteach, who said he has been friends with Barr for two decades.
“Of course, no I don’t excuse it. I horribly regret it. Are you kidding? I lost everything, and I regretted it before I lost everything,” Barr responded. “And I said to God, ‘I am willing to accept whatever consequences this brings because I know I’ve done wrong. I’m willing to accept what the consequences are.’”
Barr added that many refuse to accept her apology. “I’ve made myself a hate magnet,” she said.
After Barr’s tweet about Jarrett, ABC shut down the revival “Roseanne” series starring the comedian. When Barr blamed the tweet on Ambien, the company that produces the drug responded saying, “Racism is not a known side effect” of any of its medications.